(S11E12) In the final chapter of this exciting trilogy, Cartman goes out of his way to get Kyle to suck his balls. Oh, and the government is trying to nuke Imaginationland.It's kind of ironic that Trey Parker and Matt Stone celebrate imagination so much yet loathe the institutions that produce it (specifically Hollywood). But that's a discussion for another time.The heart of this episode I feel was the fact that South Park itself is as imaginary as all the other characters that appeared in the story. I think this was shown when the screen turned white after the nuke was dropped, leaving only Butters to re-imagine the entire world. In effect, South Park is Imaginationland.
Of course, there is also the famous heartfelt speech that occurs in each episode (which originally was preceded by "I learned something today"). Of course, I find the question of what defines real to be imaginary. Chew on that.
I wonder what this says about Butters? Is he the most real person to inhabit their imaginary world?
I think the episode would have been more interesting if they ended after the nuke had been dropped and had Butters walk off the white screen. Next week, they could have rebooted and not explained how the world came back, much as they did back when Kenny died every week. The ending was kind of weak as it was.
Kyle, Stan, Cartman and Kenny have become icons in their own right and, like Santa Claus, Jesus and all the others will likely remain long after all of us are dead. Even if they go the route of Mutt and Jeff (whom I doubt the younger readers have even heard of).
Obviously, the entire battle scene was a complete rip-off...I mean homage to The Lord of the Rings.
I don't know about anyone else, but I totally marked out when Superman talked to Kyle. He's my favorite imaginary character ever.
The first "imagined" Santa reminded me of the clone Ripley from Alien IV.
The subject of rape is not humorous...unless it takes place in Imaginationland. The Christmas Critters raping Popeye was the funniest rape I've ever seen on TV.
I wonder if the line "Don't nuke our imagination, bro" came from that guy at the John Kerry speech saying "Don't taze me, bro."
Cartman's speech to Kyle in the hospital reminded me of General Zod's speech at the beginning of the first Superman movie. Zod says "you will bow down before me" and Cartman says "you will suck my balls".
Newly recognized imaginary icons: Cobra Commander. A werewolf. Rom the Spaceknight. The Fat Guy from the comic strip Asterix. Darkseid. Waldo. Pinhead. Robin Hood. The Cavity Creeps. The Pac-Man monsters. The Pillsbury Dough Boy. Frankenberry. Bullwinkle.
I'm going to put my favorite quotes of the episode in the poll so you can pick one for yourself. I have no idea how Trey and Matt are going to outdo this one for next week. Other than the ending, I thought this trilogy was the strongest storyline of the season.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-01-2007 @ 7:18AM
Cincinnati Mike said...
Jesus battling monsters with a sword, until Butters imagines Him with an assault rifle.
Jesus: Awwright!!
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11-01-2007 @ 9:02AM
Peku said...
Great episode again. The scene with Butters in the middle of nowhere reminded me of Yellow Submarine. Kyle is a bastard, but I'm happy Cartman still kinda managed to win the battle. Favorite scene had to be the discussion in the Pentagon about what's real and what's not. Pretty much every scene in the Pentagon from all these three episodes was comedy gold thanks to Cartman, Tom, the bald guy leader (whatever his name was) and Al Gore. Favorite quote:
("Imaginary things are things made up by people. Like Santa and Rudolph")
-"Yeah, and they detract from real things like Jesus".
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11-01-2007 @ 10:32AM
J Stein said...
Not sure if you didn't mention it because it had all the subtlety of a brick to the head, but I really liked the overarching message of the trilogy that terrorist attacks like 9/11 have robbed us of much of our child-like imagination, and now our imaginations have "run wild", constantly imagining ways in which the terrorists will attack again, and unleashing the worst of our imaginations.
Really enjoyed Kyle's speech, and it made an excellent argument for the relevance of imaginary characters.
Also, I thought the ending was perfect. Anything involving Butters getting screwed is funny.
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11-01-2007 @ 10:53AM
mayorjimmy said...
Not "pac-man monsters". inky, pinky, blinky, and clyde.
we make holes in the teeth!!!
we make holes in the teeth!!!
we make holes in the teeth!!!
no warcraft characters?
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11-01-2007 @ 10:53AM
jpn said...
I thought this whole trilogy was pretty weak. Could've been done in one episode and carried all the good jokes and the message. Seemed like a wankfest just to show a bunch of imaginary characters...ironically, it seemed kind of "Family Guy"ish in its referencing of pop culture stuff. The best part, in my opinion, was Cartman's quest for ball licking. They should've stuck with one parody (Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, etc.) and done it strongly instead of a few done weakly.
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11-01-2007 @ 11:39AM
jordancda said...
Don't forget Captain Planet...he was there...in his blue-faced glory. Or green. Or whatever color that was.
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11-01-2007 @ 4:47PM
fred said...
It was a pretty good trilogy as a whole, but I was a but disappointed by this episode. Felt like they dragged it for too long, as best illustrated in that ending - as you said, it sucked.
Though to me the best ending was even sooner than you said : the nuke explodes on Imaginationland, cue to credits. No white screen with Butters alone. Imagination has been nuked, everything was destroyed, including South Park.
In the end I think it would have been better packed as a 2-parts episode...
http://88.191.26.34/i_watch_tv/2007/11/01/south-park-imaginationland-episode-iii/
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11-01-2007 @ 4:50PM
fred said...
It was a pretty good trilogy as a whole, but I was a but disappointed by this episode. Felt like they dragged it for too long, as best illustrated in that ending - as you said, it sucked.
Though to me the best ending was even sooner than you said : the nuke explodes on Imaginationland, cue to credits. No white screen with Butters alone. Imagination has been nuked, everything was destroyed, including South Park.
In the end I think it would have been better packed as a 2-parts episode...
http://88.191.26.34/i_watch_tv/2007/11/01/south-park-imaginationland-episode-iii/
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11-01-2007 @ 5:24PM
Karen said...
There was also a Totoro, from Hiyao Miyazaki's "My Neighbor Totoro." I melted when I saw that.
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11-01-2007 @ 5:39PM
Dave said...
I thought for sure that Butters was going to bring Capt. Chaos into the mix.
Overall, I loved the trilogy.
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11-01-2007 @ 6:20PM
chris said...
"but I totally marked out "
Someone's a wrestling fan...
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11-03-2007 @ 2:04AM
(-Chris-) said...
The Point of the 3 episodes of Imaginationland was to point out this war on terror is more of a war on our imaginations then anthing else... Last week there was a flurry of fires that started in Southern California and a reporter covering the story said something about this could be a Terrorist act... That right there is what I think Tray and Matt are talking about, anything happens now and we all jump to conclusions - its stupid... Oh and Hollywood does not foster Imaginations, it kills them... Books foster Imaginations... Think about it...
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11-03-2007 @ 7:57AM
trips2331 said...
Just because imgination land i nuked doesn't mean the world doesn't exist anymore. Maybe Kyle, Stan and Cartman don't live on but the world goes on without its imagination....
right?
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11-03-2007 @ 7:59PM
Jen said...
Did anyone notice if there were any underwear gnomes (on either side of Imaginationland)?
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11-04-2007 @ 5:57PM
Bonesfan458902 said...
It was a great trilogy of episodes, but the ending was kind of disappointing. However, I thought it was clever how they had Kyle suck Cartman's balls without truly sucking his balls.
A lot of great lines were spoken, but the standouts were definitely, "Why is it so easy for children to break into the Pentagon?" and "We tried that, and Kurt Russell was raped by Christmas Critters!"
Other than the kind of lame ending, there were three things that I didn't like about this episode:
1) Butters saying "shit." Kind of out of character for him ot swear like that.
2) No Kenny! And no Kenny death! I was expecting him to die strongly even though he wasn't in Episode II. It was a letdown for me. I don't know if this was the case for anyone else. However, in my mind this was an excellent opportunity for him to die.
3) Actually showing the Woodland Critters raping Popeye. The great cartoonist Bill Watterson once said that some things are funniest in one's imagination, where they are sure to be more outrageous. That was the case here. I felt like it was a lot funnier imagining the Critters raping Kurt Russell and all of the soldiers than actually seeing them do it to Popeye.
However, those were only 3 things. Other than that, awesome episode. "South Park" is #1!!!
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11-04-2007 @ 8:43PM
John said...
So...
The first thing through my mind was
"Holy sh**. Motherf***ing Rom the Motherf***ing Spaceknight!"
The imaginary characters they picked just blew my mind.
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